After Death
by OMGimprocrastinating
Summary: AU: Based on the movie Opapatika. -Slash & Het- Lancelot/Merlin, Arthur/Merlin, Merlin/Uther, Gwen/Everyone EDITED
1. Becoming: Arthur

_Disclaimer: Merlin tv series & Opapatika movie not mine. This fic is made for fun, not for monetary profit._

**Chapter 1: Becoming: Arthur**

* * *

It was a rainy night but Arthur paid no heed to the vicious drops falling from the sky, the cold water hitting every available surface noisily as if the night storm wanted to drown every other sound except its own.

In the mansion however, the sound of the rain was muted and it eased the young man's mind a little to be away from the noise as he walked across the foyer, past the rooms and into the study room where his father was waiting for him, standing in front of the fireplace, the light from the burning fire burnishing his silhoutte into a golden colour.

As soon as Arthur reached a respectable distance from his father, Uther held out a gun for him to take and said, "You know what to do."

After a brief hesitation, the young man took the weapon, its cold metal seeping into his already cold bones as he traced the runes carved on it's side with an idle yet curious finger. Arthur recognised the pattern - the _Oran Mor_ that which maintains life after death. Reincarnation.

He looked up at Uther then, the man who has raised him to be strong, brave and courageous, but the man's eyes were cold and Arthur wondered if he have ever seen any warmth in them before other than when it was aimed at his ailing mother.

In reply to his father's earlier words, Arthur gave a nod of acquiesce, placed the nuzzle of the gun against his forehead and pulled the trigger.

* * *

The druids believe that life continues after death, that the soul is immortal and that after one dies, the person goes on to live in the otherworld where good and evil does not exist since those matters of the heart and mind that makes a person human is severed from the soul.

However, there are some souls that has not been cut off completely from their human nature and hence became abomination of life.

Uther has always detested magics of any kind when his wife was ailed by an unnatural sickness and thus made it his life long passion to rid the world of these abominations - these dead people who come back to life not only with their feelings, wants and needs still intact but also their senses altered into something otherwordly.

These abominations, the dra'iocht, has been wiped out one by one by the Camelot Unit until the strongest remained but even after all his successes with the minor dra'iochts, Uther was still left wanting by Arthur human weaknesses.

When one is attacked by fire, one fights back with fire. And when one wants to defeat a Dra'iocht, one sends a dra'iocht to fight in your stead. And Arthur who has always been hungry for his father's love and approval took a mere two days to decide to become the hunting dog that Uther wanted.

That night, Arthur found himself staring down at his old body which was crumpled in a heap, the blood seeping out of the head and oozing onto the floorboards.

"Welcome back Arthur," Uther said and when Arthur looked up, he saw Uther giving him a warm smile. "My son."


	2. The Briefing

"Welcome to the next life, Master Arthur."

Arthur acknowledged Gaius' greeting with a little bow of his head, knowing by experience that the the old man has just started his briefing with an honest but blunt introduction. That, or Gaius has suddenly acquired a cruel sense of humour.

Gaius, the Camelot doctor, was also the unit's top researcher, never joining in on any active missions unless to tend to the wounded and gather information through his numerous knowledge of the dra'iochts. He was one of the smartest man Arthur has ever known.

But with all the man's knowledge, his mother still lay sick in her bed. Arthur wondered if Gaius has given up trying to find a cure for his mother, defeated by the magical sickness that seeped away Igraine's energy but never her smiles as he would often find the doctor merely chatting away with Uther and his wife in the master bedroom during some quiet moments.

Gaius was a druid but as far as Arthur knew, the man has given up the practice when he became more interested in science and technology than magic. Under Uther's sponsorship, Gaius extended his knowledge past the lore of druidism, gaining expertise quicker in science than when he practiced becoming a druid and soon became Camelot's head doctor and researcher.

The gun that his father gave him, Arthur knew, came from his father's prized collection but the runes carved on the metal was undoubtedly Gaius' work. Whatever new belief one chooses to practice next, a wise man never forgets what he has learnt.

The ex-druid was standing in front of Arthur now, about to teach the young Pendragon what it meant to be a being that his father abhorrs.

"You have already been informed about the druidism belief in life after death and understand what it entails or you might not have entered into this new life willingly," the grey-haired doctor said, "You are now in between worlds - this world and the otherworld. You are still anchored in this world by your human senses but an extra sense will be coming to the fore - a sixth sense that was once dormant when you were a human but will wake up upon your death. Tell me Arthur, what is your sixth sense. Reach into your mind and find it."

Obediently Arthur closed his eyes and tried to feel anything different about himself. He opened his mind and searched and suddenly he felt it - an alien thought seeping into his own, encompassing his mind that all he could hear and feel were those thoughts and feelings that were not his own. He could feel sadness and anger but also not lacking in curiosity and excitement. Even if Arthur couldn't see the face he knew from the aura where it had come from. When he opened his eyes, he said to the man in front of him, "I can read your mind and your feelings, Gaius."

The man looked surprised before his weathered face broke into a smile. "You have the power to see into a person's mind and heart. You experience _Aisling_ in your present consciousness and can envision people's actual thoughts and feelings. Even before the Purge, dra'iochts with this power are rare."

Arthur nodded in understanding and satisfaction. It was an amazing power. As a fighter he would be better, always knowing what his opponent was thinking and feeling even before any physical action taken.

Arthur lifted the goblet of wine and took a sip but as soon as the liquid touched his tongue, he brows furrowed in puzzlement.

Gaius took a moment to let Arthur realise what was happening before he continued, "Remember what I told you and your father before, that with every use of your power, your human senses will be dulled and overwhelmed by your otherworldly sense, quickly becoming the dominant one. How you smell, taste, touch, listen and see will change. It will take a lot to be getting used to."

"Which I will have to do," Arthur said brusquely, putting down the goblet on the table, "Shall we get on with the mission."

Gaius arched an eyebrow before giving a sigh. "Of course. These are the files of the four powerful dra'iochts which have evaded Camelot's grasp for years. You know them already but only now I am able to compile the data on them."

Gaius switched on the projector and an image of a familiar person appeared on the white wall. It was Morgana, the woman who he grew up with and had a falling out with his family when her father, Gorlois, died in one of the major fights against the dra'iochts.

Gorlois was Uther's most loyal soldier and friend and Morgana could rarely hide her hatred that for every dangerous dra'iocht Uther wants disposed of, the Camelot Unit head would always send her father to deal with. Gorlois was the only living relative Morgana had and to have him taken away from her broke her heart and mind that she killed herself one day with one of Gorlois guns.

Uther was wracked with guilt but it did not stop him from putting Morgana into the wanted list along with the other strong dra'iochts as soon as he found out that her hatred and misery has anchored her to the living world after her death and now willingly using her powers to hunt and kill Uther's men. When Morgana was still human, she was the only woman Arthur quietly admitted who can probably beat him in combat if she has more strength and given the chance to hone her abilities but now as a dra'iocht it was as if her ability as a fighter has tripled, given that all the Camelot soldiers who hunted her has been maimed or dead in her hands.

"Morgana Le Fey. Her ability is another aspect of the _Aisling_ - to see the place and time that her enemies will die making her the perfect fighter. But everytime she uses her powers, the wounds that should have been born by the person she kills if not dead will be transfered to her as a penalty."

Gaius showed him three more pictures of Morgana and in the second last slide, a scar ran over her face from the top of her left brow to her left cheek and her left eye was discoloured by blindness. In the second slide Morgana was wearing an eyepatch but even with the disfiguration, she was still beautiful as Arthur remembered her to be - her remaining green eye bright like a jewel to the darkness of her flowing locks and pale skin.

"Next is Lancelot Du Lac." The next picture that came on showed a man who looked a few years older than Arthur with olive-coloured skin and ruggedly handsome features with brown soulful-looking eyes that would not make anyone think that the man was at all evil.

However, the next series of pictures of Lancelot showed a sharp contrast to the first ones. The man's unruly hair is tied in a sleek tail and those brown eyes now has a sharp glint in them, like cats whose eyes turned luminiscent when shone a light at a particular angle. He looked ruthless and evil and the rakish smile the dra'iochts sported could probably seduce every woman and man he wanted.

"He became a dra'iocht when he was killed by a robber who broke into his and his wife's house one night," Gaius said, "His fear for the safety of his wife and anger at not being able to protect her probably manifested in him in his dying hours, holding him down in this world. He experiences _Echtra_, where at night time, he becomes an amazing beast - swift, merciless and unafraid but when morning comes he wakes up with no memory of how blood and other tainted evidences come upon his hands. That is his penalty for being in this world. To become fearless at night and turn into a timid person when the sun rises."

Arthur flipped through the file and he stopped when he read about Lancelot's wife. "The wife died."

"Yes, unfortunately," Gaius answered, "during the robbery."

Arthur picked up another file and continued. "The third is William Ealdor."

"Yes," the doctor acknowledged, pressing the buttons on the remote to show the slides of a young man with brown hair, green-brown eyes and a playful grin on his boyish face. "He died during the car race in the streets. His moments of panic before he died may have been the trigger to his dra'iocht power which is to split his body into another whole one - a shadow of his real self. It is an aspect of the _Immram_ where he is able to transfer a part of his strongest soul away from his body, becoming his fighter and protector. But everything his shadow does, every evil deed it has done, it will come back to him like a disease. His body slowly rots before it will inevitably consume him and he will become the shadow itself and thus ending his humanity again."

"I've heard from the reports that he doesn't fight while his shadow comes out. But is he able to?" Arthur questioned.

"He can," Gaius answered, "But not as good as your best fighters. You can definitely bring him down in less than a minute but it is his shadow that you will have to look out for."

Arthur nodded and Gaius pressed the remote buttons again to continue. A picture of another young man blazed across the wall. He was not as beautiful as Morgana and certainly not as handsome as Du Lac but Emrys is pretty with those bright blue eyes and the sharp cheekbones (even those ridiculous ears) and full lips pulled into a shy but honest smile that made Ealdor's bright grin look dull.

"And this is Merlin Emrys. The cause of his death is unknown and his power is of an immortal life. No one knows where and when he was born. As far as anyone is concerned, he is the perfect symbol of the druid belief of an immortal soul, except that his feelings are intact. Like a human, he feels joy and pain but his immortality has grown to become a curse. It is assumed that all of his living relatives has passed on and thus he lives alone."

"His fighting abilities?"

"No one can be sure," Gaius said, "One person says that he was weak yet another attest the opposite. Whatever the reports, Merlin Emrys evades capture everytime, dead or alive. And when I mean dead, the men who fought with him have sworn that the attacks upon him would have killed any man. How a person kills an immortal we have yet to find out."

Arthur took one last look at the image on the wall and closed the thin file shut. Not knowing what Emrys can do makes the young man as dangerous as the other three but with Arthur's new powers it will cease to become a problem. Or one can only hope.

"Anything else, Gaius?"

"Yes there is," the man affirmed and showed another image - this time of a young woman with olive-coloured skin, gentle brown eyes and dark ringlets atop a pretty face. "This is Guinevere. Last name unknown. She has been sighted on seperate occassions with the four dra'iochts. She is suspected to be a dra'iocht sympathiser but there has not been any reports of violence. Find her and you will find the Morgana, Du Lac, Ealdor and Emrys."

"Are there no other information on her?"

"Nothing else."

"Alright," Arthur said, standing up, "Where is my father, by the way?"

"He is in his bedroom," Gaius replied, looking troubled, "Resting, I think."

"More like talking to my mother," Arthur said. Gaius looked at him for a moment, and the sadness was clear on the man's face that Arthur need not read his mind to see it.

"Yes, more like."

**-tbc**


End file.
